Issues

About

Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Noah has been a proud resident of District 5 his entire life. Noah attended West High School, before graduating from the University of Utah with a Bachelor of Arts in History. He has worked as an intern with the State Legislature and on a variety of campaigns for state and local office. In his current work for Valley Behavioral Health, he helps provide mental health and substance use disorder services to communities that are often left behind.

He feels that Utah’s electorate should actively represent the citizens it serves; every voice matters and every vote counts. Furthermore, as a member of the LGBT community, Noah knows that diversity is key to balanced leadership. Noah has worked to give a platform to marginalized people in Utah, and will take a proactive approach to gender and sexuality diversity in a city with rich cultural history and a diverse, energized, and passionate population.

Noah believes that the City of Salt Lake stands at a crossroads. Now is the time to decide what our city looks like, for ourselves and for future generations. We have to decide if we want our teachers and firefighters to commute from far outside our city, or if we will welcome them into our communities. We have to decide if we want a city choked by car traffic, or if we can all breathe easier while riding a modern, integrated mass transit network. Most importantly, we have to decide if we want our city’s government to reflect only the interests of its wealthiest citizens, or if we want our leaders to represent the diverse communities who rely on them every day.

Noah will stand up for his constituents and stand by his convictions, especially when special interests and lobbyists work against the public good. He knows that government can be a force for positive change, but it must be staffed by dedicated public servants who are devoted to improving the lives of the city’s residents. He is committed to that goal and committed to you, as he thinks every member of our government should be. He will work tirelessly to further the interests of his constituents and to brighten the future of our city.

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Public Health

Far too many of us know what it is like to lose a sibling, a parent, a friend, or a child to an
overdose. Our city finds itself in the grips of a deadly epidemic. Utah ranked ninth in the nation for
overdose deaths per capita in 2015. This situation is only getting worse, with a 4% increase in overdoses
from 2014. It is time for our city to take bold action to protect the public’s health. In the State Health
Department’s most recent needs assessment, four of Salt Lake City’s five regions ranked in the top third
of their opioid mortality and morbidity index.

Our city should dedicate funding in the next budget to provide low cost naloxone to those most
in need. This lifesaving drug reverses opioid overdoses in moments, much like an epi-pen works for a
serious allergic reaction. Like an epi-pen, it can often be prohibitively expensive. By offsetting the cost,
we can have a serious impact on the number of people who die in our living rooms as well as our
emergency rooms.

Those we save today, however, may have health problems which plague them for the rest of
their lives. Intravenous drug use is clearly tied to the spread of HIV and Hepatitis-C. While there are
treatments to give a high quality of life to those who suffer from these diseases, it is far less expensive
for our community to avoid these infections in the first place. One way to do this is to encourage the
expansion of needle exchange programs in our city. Needle exchange programs are endorsed by the
Center for Disease Control as the most effective approach for combating HIV and Hep C transmission.
The NIH found that these programs cut HIV transmission by between one 33%-40%. In addition,
participants in needle exchanges are five times more likely to enter drug treatment programs than non-
participants.

Homelessness

With the homelessness situation at a crisis level, the time for decisive action is now. Instead, the
City Council waits for the mayor to craft halfhearted solutions which do not address the short, medium,
or long term problems facing our city or our homeless community. In fact, the problems we currently
face are largely due to a failure to effectively manage low income and affordable housing stocks within
our city.

The situation around the Road Home will be Noah’s first priority. That shelter currently attempts
to serve 1,800 people in a facility with only 1,200 beds. The city must find temporary emergency space
to house this larger than expected community. The city must also expand mental health, substance use
prevention and rehabilitation, and community policing services in order to blunt the impact of these
temporary shelters on the surrounding communities.

In the medium term, we must look to expand shelter capacity permanently, not just in Salt Lake
but across the county. Although Salt Lake has only 17% of the residents of the county, we provide the
vast majority of shelter beds. Only one other city in the county, Midvale, has a homeless shelter. If the
other cities in the county do not want to house their homeless citizens, they should at least cover the
ongoing costs of Salt Lake City to do so. Salt Lake clearly has no problem providing services to the
homeless, we simply ask that other cities do their share to address this problem.

In the long term, our city must work to expand our inventory of low income and affordable
housing. This should include using all available funds from redevelopment agencies, which are already
set aside for this purpose, as well as seeking additional funding from our county, state, and federal
governments. Only by addressing the root cause of our homeless crisis will we tackle this problem for
future.
future generations. Without this final step, homelessness will be a recurring problem for the foreseeable

Constituent Engagement

The City Council should be a place for residents to make their voices heard in support of the
policies they agree with. For too long, the council has allowed the office of the mayor, both past and
current, to disregard the people of the city. Governing without allowing input from the residents of the
city simply because it is easier for the officials involved is a short-sighted and undemocratic approach.
Whether the decision is about bike lanes, a new street car expansion, site selection of new homeless
shelters or removal of existing ones, the lack of openness in the process is very frustrating to many
residents. Whether you approve of the ultimate decision or not, your voice should be heard throughout
the process to ensure that our city best reflects the opinions of its residents.